Religious Motivation and Community Life Among Women Religious in Bangalore

Abstract

Religious life, as any other vocation, has its rewards as well as challenges. One of the serious challenges facing the Women Religious Congregations can be placed under the umbrella term vocation crisis. It is a phase in life where, those who have made their vows to live in religious communities experience difficulty to cope with the challenges and demands of that way of life. This paper is the outcome of an explorative study conducted through the ‘snowball sampling’ technique conducted among 130 women religious in Bangalore city. The factors investigated in the study were religious motivation, Community life - behaviors in the community, communication patterns, inter-personal relationships, impact of conflicting religious practices and issues affecting the quality of religious life. Religious motivation was found to be moderately low affecting the quality of religious life. The results expose a crisis in the life of women who have spent several years in religious life than the new recruits pointing towards the inevitability of thorough renewal at every stage of religious life.